IN HIS MAGIC ATTIC.

When Jennie entered the carriage in which her friend was waiting, the
other cried, "Well, have you seen him?" apparently meaning the Director
of Police.

"No, I did not see him, but I talked with him over the telephone. I wish
you could have heard our conversation; it was the funniest interview I
ever took part in. Two or three times I had to shut off the instrument,
fearing the Director would hear me laugh. I am afraid that before this
business is ended you will be very sorry I am a guest at your house. I
know I shall end by getting myself into an Austrian prison. Just think
of it! Here have I been 'holding up' the Chief of Police in this
Imperial city as if I were a wild western brigand. I have been
terrorizing the man, brow-beating him, threatening him, and he the
person who has the liberty of all Vienna in his hands; who can have me
dragged off to a dungeon-cell any time he likes to give the order."

"Not from the Palace Steinheimer," said the Princess, with decision.

"Well, he might hesitate about that; yet, nevertheless, it is too funny
to think that a mere newspaper woman, coming into a city which contains
only one or two of her friends, should dare to talk to the Chief of
Police as I have done to-night, and force him actually to beg that I
shall remain in the city and continue to assist him."

"Tell me what you said," asked the Princess eagerly; and Jennie related
all that had passed between them over the telephone.

"And do you mean to say calmly that you are going to give that man the
right to use the astounding information you have acquired, and allow him
to accept complacently all the _kudos_ that such a discovery entitles
you to?"

"Why, certainly," replied Jennie. "What good is the _kudos_ to me? All
the credit I desire I get in the office of the _Daily Bugle_ in London."

"But, you silly girl, holding such a secret as you held, you could have
made your fortune," insisted the practical Princess, for the principles
which had been instilled into her during a youth spent in Chicago had
not been entirely eradicated by residence in Vienna. "If you had gone to
the Government and said, 'How much will you give me if I restore to you
the missing gold?' just imagine what their answer would be."

"Yes, I suppose there was money in the scheme if it had really been a
secret. But you forget that to-morrow morning the Chief of Police would
have known as much as he knows to-night. Of cour